Shadi looked at her sternly. "Are you quite certain about this?" he asked.
"Of course!" the elderly woman said emphatically. "You know my visions were always correct in the past. I have no reason to doubt this one!"
"But . . . who's gonna die?!" Rex cried, unnerved.
The little girl's eyes widened and she clutched at Shadi's cape even more frantically. "You won't die, will you, Shadi?" she wailed.
Shadi looked at her for a long while. "Not unless it is my time," he said at last. "I do not die easily."
The girl relaxed, seeming satisfied with that answer.
"What's going on?!" Rex screamed for the millionth time.
"I wish I knew, young man," the lady replied.
****
"You saw a lady in the mirror?" Mai repeated, looking at Yugi incredulously.
Yugi nodded shakily. "I know I did!" He pointed. "She was just walking right through the room, behind the couch over there!"
Everyone turned to look in that direction.
"Well, no one's there now," Mai reported, crossing her arms.
"It would seem," Lorelei remarked suddenly, coming down the stairs, "that you have just met Carol."
"Huh?!" Yugi and all the others whirled to look at her. "Who's Carol?!" Yugi demanded.
"Carol," Lorelei replied, drawing out her sentence, "was the older sister of someone who had been staying at our ranch indefinitely."
All her listeners were intrigued.
"Come on, let us in on the whole story here!" Joey exclaimed.
Lorelei gave a sigh. "Alright," she said at last, motioning for everyone to sit down. "I guess you all have a right to know."
Once they were all seated, Lorelei began.
"This all began about thirty or so years ago," she said gravely. "I was only a little girl then, but I do remember what happened, very vaguely. It was all very strange about this family. It almost seemed as if disasters and tragedy followed them around everywhere.
"My mother was caring for these three children who were all orphaned. They were all from somewhere out in the Pacific Islands . . . I think it may have been Hawaii, but I'm not sure."
Seto perked up, looking intensely interested now.
"Well, anyway," Lorelei continued, "so they were helping us here at the ranch while they stayed and tried to earn money to go to California. The youngest girl had a beautiful white pony that she rode every day. One day when she was out riding him, her older brother was tending to things in the barn and there was suddenly a terrible fire caused by a stray bolt of lightning during a storm." She shook her head. "He was caught in the fire when he tried to get the horses out."
Bakura let out an audible gasp. "You mean he . . ."
Lorelei nodded. "We couldn't get him out in time. He died."
Yami Bakura's eyes narrowed and he muttered something under his breath that no one could catch.
"That was devastating for the two sisters," Lorelei said softly. "The youngest girl took to riding her horse more and more until she was almost gone constantly. One time, months later, she was out during the wintertime and got very sick. She died as well, and then her horse ran away."
Seto gave a startled cry. Even though he had been partially expecting Kasumi to have played some part in things at the ranch after finding Lonestar's nameplate, he had never expected that this was where she had . . . where she had . . .
Mokuba looked up at him. "Seto?" he said uneasily. "Are you okay, big brother?"
Seto grunted. "I'm fine, Mokuba."
"I remember always wondering how Carol—the oldest of the three—managed to stay strong through all of this," Lorelei said quietly. "But . . . she did finally crack. Mama found her one morning laying dead in her room, a knife clutched in her hand."
Yugi's eyes went wide. "She . . . she killed herself?!" he cried in horror.
"Apparently so," Lorelei nodded.
There was a respectful moment of silence.
"After that," Lorelei went on at last, "people would start report seeing Carol's ghost wandering through the house, obviously restless. One time . . ." She paused, looking off into the distance. "I saw her as well."
Marik suddenly looked startled, as if remembering something. "Last night I . . . I heard a girl's voice calling to me," he announced slowly.
Lorelei didn't look surprised. "It was probably Carol," she said.
Bakura blinked, recalling something as well. "Oh my!" he gasped. "I heard a voice talking to me earlier today! She . . . she whispered my name and said the word 'murder'!"
"'Murder'?!" Lorelei repeated, narrowing her eyes.
"Do you suppose it could have been Carol?" Bakura asked in a small voice, uncomfortable under the woman's gaze.
"Possibly," Lorelei replied, "but she wasn't murdered." The woman shook her head slowly, looking confused.
"Where is your mother now?" Ishizu asked softly.
Lorelei's expression didn't change. "I don't know," she admitted. "Mama disappeared a while ago and I haven't seen her since. Sometimes she goes out taking walks around the ranch or driving into town."
"Aren't you worried about where she might be?" Tea exclaimed.
"Not really," Lorelei said with a shrug. "She disappears like this all the time. Once she was missing for months and then turned up just fine. She'd just been out adventuring."
"Still," Bakura put in, "I would be extremely worried about her, no matter how often she disappeared."
"Well, she's sent me letters sometimes," Lorelei admitted, "but they're always from different places. Portland, Seattle. . . . Sometimes she writes from towns here in Nebraska and the surrounding states. She says she's having fun. Sometimes she just likes to get away from country life." The red-haired woman stood up. "But I should go make sure Bart has all the horses safely in the other stable." Abruptly she walked out.
"That was kinda . . . weird," Joey remarked.
Bakura nodded shakily.
"This fool nearly died today in a fire," Yami Bakura grunted.
"Oh, Yami, I'm fine!" Bakura replied, turning a bit pink.
"Meow," Oreo purred, rubbing up against them both.
"Man, what's been goin' on around here?!" Joey burst out, throwing his hands in the air. "Bakura almost got creamed, Rishid got thrown off a cliff by some freaky guy and his horse, some girl's ghost is floatin' around 'cause she has no peace . . ."
"Joey . . ." Bakura looked over at him, a strange look in his eyes.
"Yeah?" Joey stared back, raising an eyebrow.
"What if . . ." Bakura glanced around, his gaze falling on everyone in turn. "What if Carol really didn't commit suicide? What if . . . what if she was murdered?" he said in a hushed tone.
"Murdered?!" Joey repeated. "But who the heck would murder her?!"
"I don't know," Bakura said, shaking his head.
Suddenly there was a creak on the stairs and Joan and Linda came down.
"Have you seen that strange man?!" Joan burst out, her gaze falling on Yugi.
"What strange man?" Yugi exclaimed.
"The one who was in our room earlier!" Linda replied dramatically. "He came right up out of the floor!"
Joey grunted. "Heck, maybe you girls deserved a good scare when you wouldn't even agree to help look for Rishid," he remarked.
"Well, I never!" Linda snorted.
"A guy came out of your floor?!" Yugi blinked, remembering how Bakura had said that he was certain he'd seen Shadi.
"Yes!" Joan said emphatically. "Then some kid came out and followed after him, and then the floor just . . . was a floor again," she finished.
The group all exchanged looks. What was going on here?
"Well," Yugi said slowly, "if Shadi really is here, I wonder what he wants."
"Maybe he'll help us get back to civilization," Mai said with a toss of her head.
"I just want him to stay out of my room," Linda said, narrowing her eyes. "I'm tired of strange things going on here!" With that she turned and stormed back upstairs.
Joan lingered behind for a moment, watching them all. "I'm glad you found Rishid," she said at last with a bit of a smile.
Marik nodded curtly but didn't reply.
****
Shortly after Lorelei's tale, Marik and Ishizu helped Rishid upstairs and laid him on his bed in the room he was sharing with Marik.
"Are you certain you are truly alright?" Marik asked his brother in concern.
Rishid nodded slowly, leaning back into the soft pillows. "I am badly shaken but otherwise fine." He smiled at Marik and squeezed his hand. "Do not worry."
Marik smiled as well but still looked worried. Sighing, he collapsed into the chair next to the bed and shook his head. "When I find out who threw you off the cliff and why, they will regret what they tried to do."
"Do be careful, Marik," Ishizu said worriedly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Do not do anything rash."
"I won't," Marik retorted, sounding irritated. Almost immediately, however, he looked up at her with shamed eyes and grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Ishizu smiled and rubbed his hand. "I know," she said. "You are upset because of what was done to Rishid, and I am upset as well. You have a right to be angry. What happened was atrocious."
Rishid looked over at them but didn't join in the conversation. He was already feeling exhausted and before long he fell asleep.
****
Bakura looked over at his Yami, who was standing and staring out the window with a dark expression.
"Yami?" he finally asked, feeling uncomfortable. "Yami, what's wrong?"
The old thief grunted, continuing to look out across the ranch and clenching his fists. "You almost died today, you dolt," he growled. "I don't think you realize how close you came to it."
Bakura blinked at him. "I'm alright, Yami," he assured him.
"Yes . . . thanks to that dead boy," Yami Bakura shot back.
"Yami, what are you talking about?!" Bakura's eyes were wide and showed his immense confusion.
Slowly the tomb raider explained about the strange young man who claimed to have rescued Bakura from taking another blow from a beam—one which most likely would have been fatal. "It must have been the boy who died in that other fire," Yami Bakura remarked now.
"What?" Bakura gasped, looking shocked and a bit sickened at the realization that he really might have died—and if not from the beams, from the flames.
"You take too many chances," Yami Bakura snarled.
"I couldn't just leave the horses in there," Bakura exclaimed. "Yami, you know you would never dream of leaving Oreo somewhere where she might get hurt!" Gently he picked up the purring cat and handed her to his Yami, who only grunted in reply. "She loves you so much, Yami," the boy smiled now.
"Don't I know it," Yami Bakura muttered, looking irritated as Oreo snuggled close and licked his cheek. "Foolish feline." Bakura noticed, however, that the thief stroked the animal's fur several times and seemed to enjoy it.
****
It was much later that night when this time Ishizu awoke and couldn't sleep. Something was amiss somewhere.
Slowly she climbed out of bed and walked out to Marik and Rishid's room. Finding them both peacefully sleeping, the Egyptian woman walked on down the hall, her senses sharply alert.
She whirled abruptly when she heard a hissing sound to her right at the end of the corridor. "Who is here?" she asked low, her eyes narrowed. All she could see in the darkness was a tall, black-robed figure. "Are you the one who harmed Rishid?" she demanded.
"He should be dead," an evil voice growled. "But now you definitely will be." Without warning he grabbed the woman and threw her down the staircase nearby.
Ishizu let out a scream as she fell down the stairs and then hit her head at the bottom. "Marik," she whispered weakly, her eyes closing, "Rishid. . . . I love you, my brothers. . . ."
"How touching," the man sneered, watching Ishizu go still. With another hiss, he vanished into the darkness around them.
"Of course!" the elderly woman said emphatically. "You know my visions were always correct in the past. I have no reason to doubt this one!"
"But . . . who's gonna die?!" Rex cried, unnerved.
The little girl's eyes widened and she clutched at Shadi's cape even more frantically. "You won't die, will you, Shadi?" she wailed.
Shadi looked at her for a long while. "Not unless it is my time," he said at last. "I do not die easily."
The girl relaxed, seeming satisfied with that answer.
"What's going on?!" Rex screamed for the millionth time.
"I wish I knew, young man," the lady replied.
****
"You saw a lady in the mirror?" Mai repeated, looking at Yugi incredulously.
Yugi nodded shakily. "I know I did!" He pointed. "She was just walking right through the room, behind the couch over there!"
Everyone turned to look in that direction.
"Well, no one's there now," Mai reported, crossing her arms.
"It would seem," Lorelei remarked suddenly, coming down the stairs, "that you have just met Carol."
"Huh?!" Yugi and all the others whirled to look at her. "Who's Carol?!" Yugi demanded.
"Carol," Lorelei replied, drawing out her sentence, "was the older sister of someone who had been staying at our ranch indefinitely."
All her listeners were intrigued.
"Come on, let us in on the whole story here!" Joey exclaimed.
Lorelei gave a sigh. "Alright," she said at last, motioning for everyone to sit down. "I guess you all have a right to know."
Once they were all seated, Lorelei began.
"This all began about thirty or so years ago," she said gravely. "I was only a little girl then, but I do remember what happened, very vaguely. It was all very strange about this family. It almost seemed as if disasters and tragedy followed them around everywhere.
"My mother was caring for these three children who were all orphaned. They were all from somewhere out in the Pacific Islands . . . I think it may have been Hawaii, but I'm not sure."
Seto perked up, looking intensely interested now.
"Well, anyway," Lorelei continued, "so they were helping us here at the ranch while they stayed and tried to earn money to go to California. The youngest girl had a beautiful white pony that she rode every day. One day when she was out riding him, her older brother was tending to things in the barn and there was suddenly a terrible fire caused by a stray bolt of lightning during a storm." She shook her head. "He was caught in the fire when he tried to get the horses out."
Bakura let out an audible gasp. "You mean he . . ."
Lorelei nodded. "We couldn't get him out in time. He died."
Yami Bakura's eyes narrowed and he muttered something under his breath that no one could catch.
"That was devastating for the two sisters," Lorelei said softly. "The youngest girl took to riding her horse more and more until she was almost gone constantly. One time, months later, she was out during the wintertime and got very sick. She died as well, and then her horse ran away."
Seto gave a startled cry. Even though he had been partially expecting Kasumi to have played some part in things at the ranch after finding Lonestar's nameplate, he had never expected that this was where she had . . . where she had . . .
Mokuba looked up at him. "Seto?" he said uneasily. "Are you okay, big brother?"
Seto grunted. "I'm fine, Mokuba."
"I remember always wondering how Carol—the oldest of the three—managed to stay strong through all of this," Lorelei said quietly. "But . . . she did finally crack. Mama found her one morning laying dead in her room, a knife clutched in her hand."
Yugi's eyes went wide. "She . . . she killed herself?!" he cried in horror.
"Apparently so," Lorelei nodded.
There was a respectful moment of silence.
"After that," Lorelei went on at last, "people would start report seeing Carol's ghost wandering through the house, obviously restless. One time . . ." She paused, looking off into the distance. "I saw her as well."
Marik suddenly looked startled, as if remembering something. "Last night I . . . I heard a girl's voice calling to me," he announced slowly.
Lorelei didn't look surprised. "It was probably Carol," she said.
Bakura blinked, recalling something as well. "Oh my!" he gasped. "I heard a voice talking to me earlier today! She . . . she whispered my name and said the word 'murder'!"
"'Murder'?!" Lorelei repeated, narrowing her eyes.
"Do you suppose it could have been Carol?" Bakura asked in a small voice, uncomfortable under the woman's gaze.
"Possibly," Lorelei replied, "but she wasn't murdered." The woman shook her head slowly, looking confused.
"Where is your mother now?" Ishizu asked softly.
Lorelei's expression didn't change. "I don't know," she admitted. "Mama disappeared a while ago and I haven't seen her since. Sometimes she goes out taking walks around the ranch or driving into town."
"Aren't you worried about where she might be?" Tea exclaimed.
"Not really," Lorelei said with a shrug. "She disappears like this all the time. Once she was missing for months and then turned up just fine. She'd just been out adventuring."
"Still," Bakura put in, "I would be extremely worried about her, no matter how often she disappeared."
"Well, she's sent me letters sometimes," Lorelei admitted, "but they're always from different places. Portland, Seattle. . . . Sometimes she writes from towns here in Nebraska and the surrounding states. She says she's having fun. Sometimes she just likes to get away from country life." The red-haired woman stood up. "But I should go make sure Bart has all the horses safely in the other stable." Abruptly she walked out.
"That was kinda . . . weird," Joey remarked.
Bakura nodded shakily.
"This fool nearly died today in a fire," Yami Bakura grunted.
"Oh, Yami, I'm fine!" Bakura replied, turning a bit pink.
"Meow," Oreo purred, rubbing up against them both.
"Man, what's been goin' on around here?!" Joey burst out, throwing his hands in the air. "Bakura almost got creamed, Rishid got thrown off a cliff by some freaky guy and his horse, some girl's ghost is floatin' around 'cause she has no peace . . ."
"Joey . . ." Bakura looked over at him, a strange look in his eyes.
"Yeah?" Joey stared back, raising an eyebrow.
"What if . . ." Bakura glanced around, his gaze falling on everyone in turn. "What if Carol really didn't commit suicide? What if . . . what if she was murdered?" he said in a hushed tone.
"Murdered?!" Joey repeated. "But who the heck would murder her?!"
"I don't know," Bakura said, shaking his head.
Suddenly there was a creak on the stairs and Joan and Linda came down.
"Have you seen that strange man?!" Joan burst out, her gaze falling on Yugi.
"What strange man?" Yugi exclaimed.
"The one who was in our room earlier!" Linda replied dramatically. "He came right up out of the floor!"
Joey grunted. "Heck, maybe you girls deserved a good scare when you wouldn't even agree to help look for Rishid," he remarked.
"Well, I never!" Linda snorted.
"A guy came out of your floor?!" Yugi blinked, remembering how Bakura had said that he was certain he'd seen Shadi.
"Yes!" Joan said emphatically. "Then some kid came out and followed after him, and then the floor just . . . was a floor again," she finished.
The group all exchanged looks. What was going on here?
"Well," Yugi said slowly, "if Shadi really is here, I wonder what he wants."
"Maybe he'll help us get back to civilization," Mai said with a toss of her head.
"I just want him to stay out of my room," Linda said, narrowing her eyes. "I'm tired of strange things going on here!" With that she turned and stormed back upstairs.
Joan lingered behind for a moment, watching them all. "I'm glad you found Rishid," she said at last with a bit of a smile.
Marik nodded curtly but didn't reply.
****
Shortly after Lorelei's tale, Marik and Ishizu helped Rishid upstairs and laid him on his bed in the room he was sharing with Marik.
"Are you certain you are truly alright?" Marik asked his brother in concern.
Rishid nodded slowly, leaning back into the soft pillows. "I am badly shaken but otherwise fine." He smiled at Marik and squeezed his hand. "Do not worry."
Marik smiled as well but still looked worried. Sighing, he collapsed into the chair next to the bed and shook his head. "When I find out who threw you off the cliff and why, they will regret what they tried to do."
"Do be careful, Marik," Ishizu said worriedly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Do not do anything rash."
"I won't," Marik retorted, sounding irritated. Almost immediately, however, he looked up at her with shamed eyes and grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Ishizu smiled and rubbed his hand. "I know," she said. "You are upset because of what was done to Rishid, and I am upset as well. You have a right to be angry. What happened was atrocious."
Rishid looked over at them but didn't join in the conversation. He was already feeling exhausted and before long he fell asleep.
****
Bakura looked over at his Yami, who was standing and staring out the window with a dark expression.
"Yami?" he finally asked, feeling uncomfortable. "Yami, what's wrong?"
The old thief grunted, continuing to look out across the ranch and clenching his fists. "You almost died today, you dolt," he growled. "I don't think you realize how close you came to it."
Bakura blinked at him. "I'm alright, Yami," he assured him.
"Yes . . . thanks to that dead boy," Yami Bakura shot back.
"Yami, what are you talking about?!" Bakura's eyes were wide and showed his immense confusion.
Slowly the tomb raider explained about the strange young man who claimed to have rescued Bakura from taking another blow from a beam—one which most likely would have been fatal. "It must have been the boy who died in that other fire," Yami Bakura remarked now.
"What?" Bakura gasped, looking shocked and a bit sickened at the realization that he really might have died—and if not from the beams, from the flames.
"You take too many chances," Yami Bakura snarled.
"I couldn't just leave the horses in there," Bakura exclaimed. "Yami, you know you would never dream of leaving Oreo somewhere where she might get hurt!" Gently he picked up the purring cat and handed her to his Yami, who only grunted in reply. "She loves you so much, Yami," the boy smiled now.
"Don't I know it," Yami Bakura muttered, looking irritated as Oreo snuggled close and licked his cheek. "Foolish feline." Bakura noticed, however, that the thief stroked the animal's fur several times and seemed to enjoy it.
****
It was much later that night when this time Ishizu awoke and couldn't sleep. Something was amiss somewhere.
Slowly she climbed out of bed and walked out to Marik and Rishid's room. Finding them both peacefully sleeping, the Egyptian woman walked on down the hall, her senses sharply alert.
She whirled abruptly when she heard a hissing sound to her right at the end of the corridor. "Who is here?" she asked low, her eyes narrowed. All she could see in the darkness was a tall, black-robed figure. "Are you the one who harmed Rishid?" she demanded.
"He should be dead," an evil voice growled. "But now you definitely will be." Without warning he grabbed the woman and threw her down the staircase nearby.
Ishizu let out a scream as she fell down the stairs and then hit her head at the bottom. "Marik," she whispered weakly, her eyes closing, "Rishid. . . . I love you, my brothers. . . ."
"How touching," the man sneered, watching Ishizu go still. With another hiss, he vanished into the darkness around them.